Intervention
by catchaday
Summary: Cam finally gets fed up. An intervention soon follows.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi everyone. Long time no see. This is the first story I've published in quite a while, so I hope it's up to scratch. Also just so you know, I am just as anti-Cam as the next person, but I chose to leave her be in the interests of this story. I hope I'm forgiven ;)**

**Disclaimer: The only bones I own are the 206 in my body. (I'm sorry, but I was so amazed that I've never seen this one before that I had to use it -)**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 1

Cam was fed up. Even she was slightly surprised about it, but she knew she couldn't turn a blind eye anymore. It was just impossible not to see.

She knew that Angela had been dropping some not so subtle hints at Brennan for well over 2 years now and even the occasional one at Booth too, but clearly both were too thick and stubborn to see the truth of it. There was something she never thought she would call Dr. Brennan. Stubborn, yes, but thick? Never. And yet when it came to emotional expression, and to Booth, thick might be just the right word.

Cam knew she had no chance with Booth herself. That time had been and gone long ago. Really she had known the second she had walked into the Jeffersonian…or at least a few seconds after, when she first saw Booth and Brennan standing in the same room. No matter what he was doing or who he was talking to, he would always end up gravitating back to her in the end.

So Cam had decided to intervene. If Angela's approach wasn't working, maybe hers would. She certainly planned to be more direct, as was her usual way. No hint dropping for her, just the straight facts.

And maybe all the pair needed was a different (slightly less prone to gossip and romanticism) person to tell them how obvious it all was. In any case, she was out to save her own sanity, if not that of her team.

Cam knocked determinedly on Booth's door that evening.

He looked very surprised when he opened the door. "Cam! Um hi. What's up?"

""I need to talk to you." She said seriously, pointing accusingly at him.

"Why? Has something happened?" '_to Bones'._ Cam heard the unsaid words on the end of his question.

"No, no. Nothing's happened…and _that_ is exactly why I want to talk to you." She pushed past him into his apartment while he tried to figure out what she was on about.

"Erm, come in." He said belatedly, and closed the door behind her.

Obviously still having no idea what she wanted, he had opted for silence until she explained it to him. Taking a deep breath, she dove right in.

"You," she said, pointing her finger at his chest again, "are perhaps the single stupidest, most blind man in the world."

"Erm, nice to see you too."

She ignored his flabbergasted expression and kept talking. She wanted this to be as quick and as painless as possible. Just because she felt it _had _to be done, didn't mean she _wanted_ to do it.

"Listen Booth. I know I'm probably the last person you want to talk to about this, but someone has to do it, and you don't seem to be listening to anyone else, and she's certainly no going to get there first, so you have to come to your senses, as much for our sakes as for yours, because this whole thing is driving us up the wall!" Cam took a deep breath.

"What...Cam what on earth are you talking about?"

Oops, Cam thought. That really hadn't come out quite as clearly as she had planned.

This really was rather awkward, but she was going to do it. '_Remember - straight forward and to the point._'

"Let me start again. You and Dr. Brennan are driving me, and my team, insane. The way you continue to step around your feelings for one another and pretend that they don't exist! _Everyone_ knows, except, apparently, the two of you…"

"Woah, woah hang on. Me and Bones? What…you don't…I don't……_everyone?_" Booth stared at her with wide eyes. She listened to him splutter and attempt to get his mind around what she was saying, but she was quick to note that the final thought he had settled on was that _everyone_ knew.

"Yes Booth, _everyone_. All we're waiting on now is for you two to realise it. But as you know, I'm not the most patient of people, and I got sick of waiting. Not to mention how it's affecting my team. They're constantly discussing it, most of the Jeffersonian has bets going, and frankly it's just one big distraction."

"They have _bets_ going?!" Booth stared at her incredulously. Then he groaned. He walked over to the couch and dropped onto it, burying his face in his hands.

"From your reaction, I'm going to assume that you have already realised that you have feelings for Dr. Brennan, because you seem to have no intention of proceeding with your usual charade of denial." Cam stated matter-of-factly.

After a few moments, Booth lifted his head from his hands and looked her in the eye. He looked a bit embarrassed.

"Ok, so I've known for a little while now…but I was kind of hoping I could ignore it. Like maybe if I did that for long enough it would just sort of…fade." _God, no wonder he was embarrassed. What an idea!_

"Oh Seeley," she exclaimed. "I would have expected this of_ her_, but you?" She shook her head. "You know full well that that is not how it works. '_Fade_' my ass!"

Booth stood up from the couch and started pacing in frustration.

"Well what good is it doing me? We have this line that we agreed we wouldn't cross. We're partners. We work together! Heck, you're her boss! You couldn't condone it either!" He paused, then added quietly, "Besides, this is all irrelevant, because I know she doesn't have those kind of feelings for me. So it doesn't matter how I feel."

Cam put her hands on her hips and replied in her sternest voice. "First of all, as the boss, my sole concern is that my team works well and efficiently, with as few distractions as possible. If you two getting together stopped all of the betting and gossip they seem so fond of distracting themselves with, then I, knowing how professional you two are, would have absolutely no complaint.

"Secondly, who_ on earth_ said she didn't feel the same? Just because she might not be entirely aware of it yet, doesn't mean the feelings aren't there Booth."

When he didn't answer, she tried once more. "You should tell her Seeley. Doesn't she deserve to know?"

Her last comment caused him to give her the most pitiful look she had ever seen in her life. Apparently she had found his one weakness – he could not lie to Temperance Brennan.

"She does deserve to know." He said miserably. "But what if I scare her away? You know I couldn't bear being the reason she shut herself off again."

_Woah! There was no way Cam was going to deal with this attitude._ "Oh for goodness sake Seeley! Would you stop tiptoeing around this woman and take a chance for once! She's not made of glass!"

Booth blinked at her in surprise. "Alright…" he said hesitantly. However he quickly became more determined. "Okay, you're right. I will tell her. Just…just not yet, okay? I need to think…she's going to need time to process it when I do tell her, I'll have to give her room to think about it, just to be _certain_ she doesn't bolt…"

He saw Cam's face and added, "Yes I _know_ she isn't made of glass, but I also know her, and if I crowd her too much, if I put too much pressure on her, she will run. So just…not yet." He was back to his pacing and fidgeting, looking unbelievably nervous.

"I'll only ever get one chance to do this, so I have to get it right first time." By now he was talking as much to himself as to Cam. If not more.

She, however, was thinking through everything Booth had just told her. Perhaps her interfering wasn't quite over after all. Already a second plan had started to form itself in her quick mind.

She could not do anything more here though, and she began to move towards the door. Before she left, she turned back to Booth, feeling a bit bad about leaving him in this state.

"Hey Seeley." She waited for him to look at her. "Maybe you should consider the fact, that she might not turn you down at all." She waited again as he processed what she had said, until his serious expression changed into a huge grin.

"See you later Seeley." Cam said and, satisfied, she turned on her heel and promptly left the apartment, now occupied only by Seeley Booth and a particular image that was making him very happy.

* * *

**So what do you think? Please review and let me know, otherwise I will have to assume that it is terrible and won't bother posting the next chapter :(**


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh look, another chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 1. I know this one is quite short, but it really needs to be a chapter of it's own, so I didn't want to add anything else to it. Plus, chapter 3 will be a lot longer to make up for it.**

**Chapter 2**

"Dr Brennan, I need a word." Cam said as she walked purposefully into her office. Shutting the door firmly behind her, she turned to face the half-listening Dr Temperance Brennan.

"If this is about that performance report, I was just about to do it." She said, not looking up from a file on the desk in front of her. "It'll be on your desk tomorrow morning."

Dr Camille Saroyan squared her shoulders in preparation, and then dove right in. "I'm pretty sure…no I'm positive, that I'm the very last person on earth who you would want to hear this from, but frankly I couldn't care less."

Apparently that statement merited more attention than a few pieces of paper.

Determined not to give her the chance to interrupt, Cam made the leap 99.89 of the world would consider pretty much suicidal. "You, Dr Brennan, are in love with Seeley Booth." Brennan's mouth fell open.

"Obviously you haven't realised it yet, God knows how, but everyone else within a hundred mile radius has known it for a very long time. What they also know is that Booth is just as much in love with you.

"Unfortunately, because everyone has known this for so long, they are getting truly sick of how you two seem to remain painfully oblivious to the fact. Which is why I am here now. Someone needs to make you see that you should be together, because no one wants to see you realise ten years from now that it's too late for you to do anything about it."

Cam finally stopped for a breath and to try to gauge a reaction from the still-silent woman. Temperance opened and closed her mouth a few times, clearly trying to figure out how to react to such an unexpected affront.

"That…love?!...that's…that's ridiculous! It's absurd! I don't…love Booth!" The last words she said in a hoarse whisper, as if afraid that someone else would hear.

Cam looked at her sternly. She knew this wouldn't be as easy as it was with Booth, but she was hoping the firm approach would work just as well.

"Dr Brennan, I am not Angela. I'm not going to drop subtle hints and hope you'll figure them out eventually, and I'm not going to let you continue to keep yourself in the dark. That's not my style. So please, will you just admit that you have feelings for Booth, and realise that he feels just the same as you? It's not exactly a state secret you know."

She paused again to let Temperance answer. She still looked somewhat shocked, but not quite as much as before.

"I…I don't have those kind of feelings for Booth." She stated. Cam rolled her eyes, mentally rolled up her sleeves, and was about to continue when…

"And who said Booth felt like that either? Surely he would have told me if it was true…wouldn't he? He hasn't said anything…"

But there it was. Doubt.

"Well neither have you. It doesn't mean the feelings aren't there." Temperance continued looking at Cam with huge eyes. The fact that she was not putting up a fight seemed a good sign. Maybe she was starting to see after all.

"Look, I know Booth. I've known him for a long time, and I can see how much he is in love with you." She took a deep breath.

"I know, because he looks at you in a way he never looked at me. Not in the whole time we were together. You know when Zach was in Iraq and you wouldn't go out in the field with him. He was so upset because he thought you were angry at him. And when I first started here, and I threatened to fire you? Do you know what he did? He came to me and threatened me right back. He said he would never talk to me again if I did it. He was with 'his Bones' the whole way. If you went, he went. Even then he was head over heels. He would have done anything for you."

It was a serious blow to Cam's pride to admit all of these things, but she knew she needed to do it, for a million different reasons.

Temperance was now looking at her hands in her lap and slowly shaking her head. "I don't know." She whispered.

Cam felt she was almost there. Just one more hit. "Just think about this...What would you do if Booth told you that he loved you?" She waited, making sure her question had sunk in.

Temperance looked up at her with a frown.

"Just think about it ok?" Cam said, and then left the office.

Booth had said he didn't want to scare her, didn't want to make her run. Well now, hopefully, she wouldn't. Cam had given her the time Booth thought she would need to think, without the pressure of Booth having said it to her face.

As soon as she had left Brennan's office, Cam went straight over to where Angela and Hodgins were standing, just outside his office door. "I want in on this bet." She said as soon as they looked up at her.

"I give them a week."

* * *

**Reviews make me happy! **


	3. Chapter 3

**For the purposes of my story, I'm going to pretend that Gormagon never existed. I won't spoil anyone and say why, but the rest of you can probably figure it out :)**

**Chapter 3**

It had been two days since she had spoken to Brennan. At work, Cam had followed her lead, and in front of the others they acted as if nothing had been said.

That morning, Cam called Booth.

"You should do it today."

"Do wha…oh…" She heard a short screech of breaks and some muttered swearing. Apparently he was driving.

"Yes Booth." She heard him take a deep breath on the other end of the line.

"Um, is there a particular reason why I should do it today?"

"Because I said so. Just trust me, alright Seeley. You plan on talking to her sooner or later don't you?" He stayed silent. "So today's as good as any other day."

"Yes but today is…_today_. As in today my life is probably going to be changed forever, and I have absolutely no idea whether for the better or the worse. _That_ is the rather big difference between today and any other day!" He was rambling, and she knew his usually unshakable self-confidence had just flown out of his car window.

She heard his car engine being turned off and then, "Oh God, I can't believe this is going to happen. I still don't even know what I'm going to say!" Ok, so maybe his confidence had just crashed straight through the front windscreen instead.

"Seeley, stop panicking. You'll know what to say when you're there, you always do. It's your job. And just think, she might say it right back."

"Yeah, and she might banish me forever." He retorted gloomily.

"But she might say it back." Cam insisted. She was starting to find this whole thing extremely strenuous. "Just imagine that will you. Is it not worth the risk?" There was a long pause. A very long pause. She would have thought he had hung up on her, if she couldn't still hear his breathing.

"Okay." He eventually said, and then he really did hang up.

* * *

At 12:36pm, a man got out of his SUV, which was parked outside the Jeffersonian Institute. This man, who happened to be called Seeley Booth, was utterly terrified. Not to mention uncharacteristically indecisive. Should he take her out to lunch? Should he ask her to go for a walk? Should he stay in her office?

Eventually, after much debate and deliberation, he opted for the last. It was much less public, which would be good if everything went south. In fact, the privacy would be good if things went the other way too.

Seeley Booth had not done a single bit of work that morning, despite having sat in his office the entire time. He had instead spent it trying again and again to find the perfect way of telling a certain woman inside the afore-mentioned building that he was madly, impossibly, head-over-heels in love with her.

In the end the only thing he had was considerably less pages left on his notepad, and an overflowing bin.

Standing by his car, Booth took a deep breath and sent up his umpteenth prayer to God that this would work.

Although Cam had been the one to push him in the right direction, he had already been contemplating this all of his own accord. He had been slowly starting to think that confessing was his only option.

The second he admitted to himself that he was in love with his partner, it suddenly became ten times harder to be around her. He had been convinced that he would be caught out at any second for looking at her a moment too long, or for standing half an inch too close. Of course if he had been found out, it would probably have been his nervous behaviour_ because _of all the other things.

However, until Cam had given him a good kicking, he had still been trying his hardest to ignore it all and force his feelings into non-existence. With Cam's help, he had realised how ridiculous that was. He was still scared as hell over what he was about to do, but he was also determined to do it. She deserved to know, he needed to let her know.

Booth was in love with the smart, beautiful, argumentative, socially awkward Temperance Brennan, and now he was on his way to tell her.

* * *

At 12:39 Temperance looked up from her computer to find Booth standing in her doorway. She hadn't seen him since Cam had come to her office two days ago, and she felt an odd tightening in her chest at seeing him now.

"Hey Booth."

Hey Bones." He replied, giving her a particularly heart-warming smile.

Being a rather objective person, one part of Temperance had been able to appreciate the way Cam had approached her with the situation. She had almost been completely overwhelmed by what Cam had said to her, so much so that she had been that close to ignoring all of it and shutting it out of her mind. But Cam had made it much simpler…or at least more _concise._ She gave her something she could possibly deal with. Something to focus on, that is, a question which required an answer, but did not demand an action.

So what _would_ she do, if Booth told her that he loved her?

She had spent a lot of time thinking about it. She had formed hundreds of different scenarios in her head, trying to figure out which one was truly honest to the way she felt, or didn't feel. She finally knew which scenario best mirrored her exact feelings about it when, upon replaying it for the 5th time in her mind, she found that she could not stop the smile that unintentionally appeared on her lips.

The thought of Booth saying that he loved her scared her and she could not comprehend the consequences of it or the circumstances in which it could possibly happen, but she did know for certain that…

"Hey Booth."

"Hey Bones."

She returned his warm smile as much as the tightness in her chest would allow.

"I need to talk to you Temperance."

Now, she knew that her ability for reading people was poor, but she thought that she knew Booth well enough to recognise that he was very nervous about something. Not to mention serious, which she knew the second he called her Temperance.

"What is it Booth?" His tone concerned her. "Is it about a case?"

He shook his head as he closed the door behind him, not looking her in the eye.

"Well what is it?" She was really starting to worry now. It must be something serious, if he was hesitating so much to tell her. "Is it…about my dad? About Russ?"

He looked up at her. "What? No, no. It's not that. I…"

During all of her musings over the last few days, Temperance had firmly stuck to the idea of '_if_ Booth told her…' She could think of it only as a hypothetical, because she had no idea if Booth had any feelings of that sort for her, and even if he did she had no idea when, if ever, he would tell her.

This is why Temperance could barely breathe from shock when Booth closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath and said the one thing she had been contemplating for days, and the one thing that, in reality, she had least expected him to say.

"Bones…Temperance, I…I'm in love with you. I have been for quite a while and I feel like I have to tell you before I explode, and I know this must be scaring the hell out of you but I couldn't think of any other way to tell you and please, please don't run away, please I just…"

He opened his eyes and stopped speaking, staring at her with so many different emotions in his eyes that she could not have deciphered them if she tried. Instead she sat stock still in her chair, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. For a long while her mind was frozen, then slowly thoughts started pushing their way forward.

_So this was unexpected, _extremely_ unexpected. But she had already thought about how she would react to this as a hypothetical situation, so was this time any different? Was it? Did she feel the same, now that it had really happened?_

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and she looked over to see Zach open it.

"Um sorry to interrupt Dr Brennan, but I was wondering if you would come and sign off on the remains we were working on this morning. Dr Saroyan was saying earlier that she wanted the reports today to pass on."

Zach waited patiently for an answer, completely oblivious to the tensions and emotions thickening the air around them. There was a pause.

"Of course Zach, I'll be there in just a second." She confirmed in her professional tone. He nodded and went back to his remains from limbo without a second glance.

She stood up from her chair and slowly walked to the door, almost afraid to look at Booth. Standing in the middle of her office. When she reached the door she turned towards him and saw his head hung low and his eyes closed.

"Just…just wait here a moment."

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Please." She asked quietly, and then she turned back and left the office.

* * *

Closing his eyes Booth realised there was no easy way to do this. The best way to tell her would have to be to just do it as quickly as possible – like pulling off a band aid. He scoffed internally at the understatement of the century.

He took a deep breath. "Bones…Temperance, I…I'm in love with you. I have been for quite a while and I feel like I have to tell you before I explode, and I know this must be scaring the hell out of you but I couldn't think of any other way to tell you and please, please don't run away, please I just…"

Positive that she was already on the other side of the continent by now, Booth slowly opened his eyes. Well, she was still sitting in her seat. But her expression was less than reassuring. She looked outright stunned. He watched for a reaction, a sign, anything that would give him a vague indication of what she was thinking or feeling.

In his case, he was thinking and feeling a million different things at once.

He was terrified at what he had just blurted out, he was utterly miserable because he was sure she would reject him, he was deathly afraid that he had just ruined their friendship and partnership forever by confessing his love for her, he was anxious about exactly how she was going to react and, on top of all that, he still managed to have some stupidly irrational hope that she would soon make him the happiest man alive.

She had lost her deer-in-the-headlights look now, but he still could not decipher what she was thinking. Before he could even try to do so there was a knock on the door. Zach started to speak and Booth tried to readjust himself.

From the second he had stepped into this room Booth had felt as though everyone else in the world had temporarily stopped existing, which is why he was so surprised when he saw Zach appear in the doorway.

Zach was asking Bones to come do something. _What? No!_ Right then he felt like strangling the weedy little squint. _Couldn't_ _he see they were in the middle of something?!_

If Booth had been his usual self he would have laughed at such a stupid question.

Then she stood up from her chair. _She was going? Oh God, this was a very bad sign for him. She was leaving!_ He couldn't even watch as she walked past him to the door without a single word or even a glance towards him. _She couldn't even look at him!_ He closed his eyes and hung his head.

That was it. He had told her the truth about how he felt about her and, as he should have known, she couldn't deal with it. Surely she would have ignored Zach's untimely request if she had felt anything other than the urge to run. She couldn't even give him an answer; she was just gone.

Nothing could make him hate himself more than he did at that moment. It was his fault after all. He _knew_ her, he knew she wouldn't cross the stupid, _stupid_ line that he had invented. And now he may have ruined the relationship they already had forever. God, what had he _done_?

"Just…just wait here a moment." He looked towards the door in shock. She was still there! And what was that she had just said?

"Please." She said, looking him timidly in the eyes. He could feel his chest physically aching as he looked at her, and his brain was just kicking itself into gear when she turned and left the room.

She had asked him to wait here. What did that mean? Surely it meant she was coming back soon, but for what?

She hadn't seemed upset or angry. She hadn't seemed particularly happy either. She had seemed…shy? Unsure? Afraid?

He didn't know. So he just stood in the middle of her office and waited, torturing himself with possibilities of what she could be thinking, and trying to ignore the small bit of hope that was gradually creeping into his chest.

**First person to review gets a cyber lollipop! please R&R**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Booth stopped moving mid-pace when he heard her heels approaching the office. He stood side on to the door, watching it for when she came in. What would she say? He couldn't even think about it, he was so focused on that damn door.

He heard her steps pause just outside and he could almost see her preparing herself out there, but for what? This was pure torture, he just wanted it to be over so he could go and hide from the world in his apartment, and yet at the same time he didn't. Either way he was starting to seriously doubt following Cam's advice.

He saw her come slowly around the barrier between them, closing it and standing with her hands and back pressed against it, staring at him.

"Um, Zach just needed me to sign off on the remains we were working on this morning." She said unnecessarily.

He watched for even the slightest sign of what she was thinking, but he couldn't for the life of him decipher her expression. With his nerves through the roof and his heart in his shoes, he took a tentative step towards her.

"Temperance." He whispered. There was a pause, as if the very air around them had solidified, and then she took a step away from the door. A step _towards_ _him._ He thought she looked…wary, and uncertain, but there was something else in her eyes as well. He had no idea what he should be thinking anymore. He had given up.

She was just close enough that he could have reached out and touched her, but he didn't. He didn't…she did. If he hadn't been frozen to the spot, he might have stepped back in surprise when she reached out to him. She touched his shoulder lightly and then quickly dropped her hand again, her eyes falling to the floor with it. But the action had given Booth a spark of hope and he took another step closer.

This made her look back up at him, and he was struck by the bright blue of her eyes this close up. Suddenly feeling daring, Booth reached up and touched her cheek with his thumb. She didn't pull away.

"Temperance." He said again. "Just to make sure you believe me, I'm going to say it again." She still hadn't broken eye contact with him. "I love you."

And then she smiled. _She smiled, she smiled, she smiled!_ His brain was doing a private happy dance in his head. He smiled broadly back at her, hoping to God she was smiling for the reasons he thought she was.

* * *

"Booth." Temperance said, unable to stop the smile that had spread across her face. He really did mean it! "I…" she didn't even know what she was going to say. She bit her lip and looked down, Booth's hand still on her cheek. She was never good at this words thing. Not when it came to expressing emotions anyway.

As she thought this, she had an idea. If words were too difficult, maybe she could tell him another way. It was like that phrase she had heard Angela use once…what was it? Actions speak louder than words.

She grinned and looked back up at Booth. He smiled too (it seemed it was infectious) but looked a bit confused, he was still unsure of her.

Well, she planned on dispersing any confusion personally.

Before he knew what she was doing, she had put both hands behind his neck ad pulled his lips down to meet hers.

For a moment he was clearly too shocked to react, but only for a moment. With the hand not on her cheek he quickly grabbed her waist, pulling her in closer to him. His lips, like hers, were still curved into a smile as they kissed.

She suddenly felt a ridiculous sense of happiness rush through her, and she couldn't stop herself, for some equally ridiculous reason, from laughing. She pulled away slightly and removed one of her hands from him to cover her mouth.

Looking up, she saw Booth grinning at her and, against all reason and logic, she thought that right then he looked like he didn't have a care in the world. Still laughing, she buried her face in his shoulder.

Booth wrapped both arms around her waist and held her as tight as possible, smiling into her hair. Right now he was the happiest man on the planet.

* * *

As much as she was enjoying this new experience, Temperance had a sudden thought, and felt in the mood to address it immediately. She removed her head from Booth's shoulder and looked up at him.

"Um, would you mind waiting here a moment? I just have something I need to do very quickly."

He looked at her with fake distress. "You're going to leave me here alone _again_? Do you know what the suspense did to me the last time?" he was only half joking.

She gave him her own distressed look. "Oh I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, sounding genuinely worried about it. "I just thought that, seeing as I _am_ at work, that well I…I really ought to help Zack if he asked me to."

He smiled affectionately at her. _Of course that's all she had been thinking! He should have known. Ah, the benefits of hindsight!_ "Of course you couldn't ignore him. Don't worry, really. Speaking of work though, I should be getting back soon, so be quick with whatever it is you _have_ to do, hey?"

"I promise I'll only be a second." She reassured him, visibly still worried. He couldn't help but find her concern insanely cute.

"Ok, well go now and then come right back." He nudged her towards the door, and after saying brightly once more, "Just one second, I promise!" she was gone.

* * *

Temperance walked happily out of her office. With a bounce to her step, she made her way to the platform, where Cam was standing with Angela. As she approached both women turned to her, and Temperance stopped in front of Cam.

After a moment, Cam tilted her head to one side, scrutinising her to see if she was guessing correctly. Very slowly a smile started to grow on Temperance's lips and then, in a split second, she stepped forward and hugged Cam. Another second later, and without a single word, she broke away, turned, and walked off. She knew what Cam had done.

As Temperance walked away, a bewildered Angela turned towards Cam. "What on earth was all that about?" She gasped.

"That," replied Cam with a smile "was about me winning that bet."

* * *

Temperance re-entered her office where Booth was sitting, perched on the edge of her desk. Seeing her come in, he pushed himself casually away from it.

"All done with the disappearing now?" he asked jokingly.

"Booth! I wasn't _disappearing_, you knew I was going…but yes." Apparently the recent events had not affected her need to dispute his every word, which he was glad to see. It was just one of the many reasons why he loved her, no matter how frustrating.

"Well good, because now it's my turn. If I don't leave soon I'll be late for work, my lunch break's almost over."

"Hmm, you know you could always say you were doing work here. They wouldn't know." He raised his eyebrows at this uncharacteristic attitude towards work. "Then again," she added, her eyes suddenly deciding to wander the room "It's probably a good thing that you have to go back. I have a feeling we both need to sit down and let ourselves catch up on…well, everything."

Booth's heart skipped a beat at her words. Was she having second thoughts already? What if she had just been caught up in the moment before? What if she changed her mind once she had 'caught up'?

"Hey I have an idea." Booth said, moving forward to stand in front of her and instinctively reaching out to rest both hands on her arms. "How about I come back after work and we go get some dinner? I'm sure we'll both be caught up by then, don't you?"

His doubt decreased a bit when he saw her eyes light up.

"Alright." She said. "How about eight?" He gave her an exasperated look.

"You would still be here at eight?"

"What, I have work to do!" She was completely oblivious to the twenty different kinds of wrong he thought working that many hours a day was.

"And this from the woman who just suggested I pretend that I'm working so that I can spend more time with _her_." He shook his head mockingly.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, how about seven then?"

"Done!" He knew a good deal when he saw one, and he knew her too well to expect anything better.

She grinned up at him, clearly looking forward to it despite having to leave an hour early, and it was clear that her momentary doubt had now disappeared. He looked at her smiling face for a few moments, absorbing her obvious cheerfulness, and then he leaned down and caught her lips with his own.

It didn't take long for her arms to twine up around his neck again, holding him in place. His hand went to her waist; the other twisted itself into her hair. This kiss was deeper, longer – not nearly as tentative as the first.

When they pulled away it was not by much. "Temperance." Booth said quietly, their faces two inches away and their hands still on one another. She looked him straight in the eye.

He gave her an intense look. "Promise me you won't change your mind while you're 'catching up'." He said earnestly. Her cheeks flushed and for a while she seemed not to know what to say. He felt, heard and saw her take a deep breath.

"I promise I won't change my mind." She said with total sincerity.

He let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding, and took another one in that smelled wonderfully of her. "That's all I wanted to hear." He assured her, kissing the worried frown off her forehead.

"So, see you at seven then?" Booth said cheerfully, stepping away form his date and towards the door of her office.

"See you at seven."

They shared one last infectious smile, and then he was gone.

* * *

Booth walked, grinning, past Angela on his way out of the Jeffersonian. She yelled at him as he went by.

"Hey, what are you looking so ecstatic about?"

Momentarily turning and walking backwards he yelled back. "Go ask that gorgeous friend of yours!" Then he turned back around and walked out of the building.

This was just too many hints in one day for the ever-curious artist, and she immediately ran off to see said friend, with wide eyes and a single question on her mind.

* * *

Temperance dropped into her chair once Booth had left, a small smile still unnoticed on her face. After a minute replaying the feel of his lips on hers and his hand in her hair, her brain started to reboot itself.

She quickly began to comprehend the enormity of what had just happened. It wasn't even like they had just agreed to go on a date. No, they had gone way beyond that, to Booth confessing his love for her!

It was just like them to go to the extreme in everything though, she thought, even this. _Especially _this.

She suddenly had a whole new respect for the way Cam had orchestrated it all, giving her time to think over the situation before she actually had to face it, preparing her. She knew how she would have reacted if she hadn't had the chance to think about it all.

She was ashamed of it, but she knew what she would have done. She would have run away, away to somewhere where she could be alone to think over what had happened and how to deal with it.

Maybe she would have realised she had feelings for Booth eventually, but she still would have hurt him by running away from him, and by making him wait for her to slowly sort through everything. No, overall she was _very_ grateful to Cam for what she had done. That is, if everything worked out between Booth and herself…

Temperance was glad that Angela chose that moment to storm into her office, effectively stopping her train of thought.

"Bren, sweetie, honey…_why_ exactly do I feel like I am being kept out of some wonderfully scandalous and mind-blowing loop that involves you and a certain G-man?" She demanded on entry.

Temperance snorted at her friend's over-exaggerated entrance. She opened her mouth to reply but Angela held up a hand.

"Wait! Before you say anything I want you to know that Cam has been dropping some interesting hints all week about the two of you, and just now she all but told me outright that you and Booth were _together_, not to mention _your_ odd behaviour just before which I will want an explanation for once we've cleared this up, _and_ I just saw Booth leaving with the most idiotic grin I've ever seen on his face and when I asked what was up, do you know what he said?!"

Temperance shook her head, _very_ entertained by this whole display.

"He _said_, 'go and ask that gooorgeous friend of yours'!"

She felt her cheeks grow hot, but she was pretty sure Angela hadn't noticed.

"So don't even think about lying to me because I won't believe you." She paused, finally, and Temperance thought she had finished, but she added one more thing. "And I can see you blushing about Booth calling you gorgeous, which I think is very cute of both of you, so now you need to tell me everything that has happened. Ok?" She smiled sweetly and Temperance rolled her eyes.

Standing up from her chair, she grabbed a folder off her desk and turned to address her impatient friend. "Ok then, you want to know everything that happened? The other day Cam encouraged me to think about how I would react if, hypothetically, Booth had told me that he, um, had feelings for me. Then today Booth came and said just that, and because I had already come to decision as a result of Cam's hypothetical situation, I had already thought of how I would react."

She paused for effect, wondering vaguely if Angela would pounce on her, as she looked about to do, if she didn't tell her the rest soon.

"And?!" Angela shrieked, waving her hands wildly for more information.

"And we kissed." She glanced up thoughtfully for a moment. "Twice."

Angela's mouth literally dropped open, and Temperance managed to keep a straight face as she walked past her, folder in hand, and out of the door. It took about three seconds before she heard the squeal from her office. Soon after Angela came running up behind her and launched herself at her, almost knocking her over.

"Oh honey this is so wonderful! I'm so happy for you. Are you happy? Oh my gosh, I _told_ you it would happen eventually! I knew I was right about the pair of you." She squeezed her tightly. "Oh I'm just so happy for you!"

Her excitement was infectious, and Temperance couldn't help laughing. "Thanks Ange…and yes," she said truthfully "I am happy."

Angela came and stood in front of her and looked her over. "Oh honey, you and Booth are just perfect for one another."

Temperance paused. While she appreciated the comment, she couldn't help other concerns entering her head. "Ange, we haven't even been on a date yet. You really shouldn't say that. Something could still go wrong you know. Lots of things could still go wrong."

Angela's expression change from thrilled to caring and she took Temperance's free hand in her own. "Bren, there's no doubt you guys will argue, and you might have some problems, but I know you care enough about one another to sort them out, and you really will be great together. I really do mean it when I say you two are made for each other." She smiled warmly, and got a small smile in return.

"Besides, you two already bicker like an old married couple, so it won't be anything new!" Angela exclaimed brightly, eliciting the laugh she had been aiming for.

"Thanks Angela." She said, pushing away her worries. Either way, they weren't any use to her at the moment.

"Anytime." She replied, and hugged her once more. "Congratulations sweetie."

* * *

**Please R&R!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I have to say I don't like this chapter much, but I thought it was necessary for the story. Sorry for taking so long to update this time.**

Chapter 5

At 6 o'clock that evening Temperance was just re-entering her office, when she was joined by Angela, looking worryingly cheerful about something.

"Guess what!"

Temperance gave her friend a wary look as she walked over to her desk. "What Angela?"

"I'm throwing a party!" Angela replied, trailing along behind her. Temperance started fiddling around with a pile of papers on her desk while Angela stood beside her, bouncing on her toes.

"Um great Ange." She said absent-mindedly. "When is it?"

"Tonight!"

It took her a few seconds to register what she had said, and before she could even reply Angela started talking again. "And seeing as it's 6 o'clock already, when I say tonight I really mean now, which means that right now you are going to drop all of those silly papers, grab your stuff and come with me."

With those words Angela hooked one arm through hers and dragged her over to her coat and bag (her previous position unfortunately meant that she was dragged backwards).

"Wait! Angela I can't…"

"Oh yes you can! No arguing with me missy. There is no way you are bailing on this party to stay here and work, I won't allow it..."

Although Temperance had been trying to say that she couldn't come to the party, it wasn't because she wanted to work. Booth had already made sure she wouldn't be working by asking her out to dinner.

"…not on a Friday night!" Angela continued, not giving her the slightest chance to answer back. "And besides, this party is sort of in honour of you anyway. Well, you and Booth. We have to celebrate your wonderful news! Oh and I hope you don't mind, but I told Jack. I figured I probably should seeing as we're having the party at his place."

As Angela continued to ramble she forced Temperance into her coat, handed her her bag and ushered her out of the lab, not allowing her bewildered friend to get a word in edgeways.

"I don't think Zach knows yet, but would you mind if I told him? I mean he's really the only one who doesn't know now, because _obviously_ Cam knows, so it doesn't really matter…"

"Uh, that's fine, but…"

"Oh good. You know I do feel a bit sorry for him sometimes, he always seems to be the last person to know these things…" They had arrived at the car park, Angela having talked the whole way there, and it was looking less and less likely that Temperance would be able to get out of this.

"You might as well come in my car." Angela continued. "There's no point in taking two. Actually you've never even been to Jack's place, have you? Oh just wait until you see it. It's massive, really."

They located Angela's car in the parking lot and got in. As they left the Jeffersonian Angela kept going on and on, mostly about the party, telling her things like "the boys are going to pick up Pizzas on the way home, and I've ordered Jack to get a car load of alcohol too, because you just can't have a celebration without some decent alcohol to liven things up, now can you?"

After a while she also added "oh, and we should call Booth and let him know. I was going to get you to call him, but I need to give him directions to the house and everything, so it's probably just easier if I do it. Plus this party is pretty much all for the two of you anyway, so you shouldn't be doing any of the organising! Do you know if he has any other plans tonight?"

Oh no, Temperance thought, how am I going to explain any of this to Booth? He was expecting to go out to dinner! It was basically going to be our first date! Maybe it's not too late to back out of this. I have to tell Angela. "Um well actually, he…"

"Oh look, here we are!" Angela exclaimed, pulling into a circular driveway in front of what could only be described as a mansion. They pulled to a stop in front of the house, and Angela turned to her friend. "Sorry honey, what were you going to say?"

Ok, maybe it was too late. They were already here, and it was almost 6.30. She couldn't very well make Angela drive her all the way back to the Jeffersonian _now_. "Um, nothing. It doesn't matter. Wow Hodgins' place is really huge!"

She just hoped Booth would be ok with this. They could postpone dinner to another night, couldn't they? Besides, parties could be fun…

* * *

"Oh Angela sorry, but Bones and I can't make it tonight." Booth said into his phone. "We've already made plans tonight for dinner. It's um, well it's kind of our first date. Although I think maybe it's more of a pre-first date, because we probably need to talk a few things over before we start 'dating', you know? But anyway, I'm really sorry we can't…"

"You what? But you…she…she didn't say anything!" gasped Angela.

"What?"

"Oh Booth, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! I think she was trying to tell me earlier, but I thought she just wanted to stay behind and work, so I ignored her and dragged her away. We're at Hodgins' place now and the others are going to be here really soon."

As he made his way out of the Hoover building, Booth voiced his confused, and rather concerned, thoughts. "But I don't get it, why didn't she just tell you?" _Was she having second thoughts already?_ The happy bubble that had enveloped him all afternoon started to deflate.

"Um, well you see Booth, I kind of didn't give her the chance. I kept talking over her so she wouldn't try to worm out of it. You know what she's like with parties and everything. I just…I just wanted her to have some fun with you and the rest of us. I had no idea."

He thought she sounded very embarrassed and he weighed up what she had said. Very quickly an image jumped into his head of an extremely bewildered looking Bones, watching with wide eyes as her friend rambled on at the speed of a train. He understood why she hadn't been able to get a single word in, let alone explain that she already had dinner plans with him. When she felt the urge, Angela really was a force to be reckoned with.

He couldn't help laughing at the mental picture either. Looking at his watch, he saw it was just after 6:30. "You know what Angela, don't worry about it. Maybe I will come to your party after all. I suppose we can postpone our dinner a day or two."

"Oh really? You wouldn't mind?"

"As long as it's alright with Bones. Hey, it might even be fun, right?"

"Might? What's this might? Seeley Booth my parties are _always_ fun. There is plenty of alcohol on it's way, more unhealthy food than you can poke a stick at, a few interesting activities which I have planned, _and_ some damn sexy women just waiting to be swept off their feet!"

Booth grinned down the phone as he reached his car. "Hey, sounds pretty good to me!"

"Excellent! I think Bren's warming up to the idea too, so don't worry about her." Booth was quietly confident that he could convince her to have a good time once he got there anyway. Suddenly this party was sounding like a brilliant idea.

"Alright, I'll just go home and change quickly, and then I'll be right there." He said, then took down Hodgins' address.

"Oh and Booth." Angela said just before he hung up. "Congratulations."

He knew what she was talking about. "Thanks Angela." He swallowed hard. "I just hope I don't screw up from here."

"You won't. I'm sure of it." Angela said in a confident voice. "Besides, she's far too worried about screwing it up herself to let _you_ do anything wrong."

"She is?" Strangely enough, the fact that she was worried about something going wrong made him feel better. It meant she really wanted it to work.

"She is. She told me so before. Just after you left."

He couldn't wait to see her tonight. "Thanks Angela. Really. And I'll see you soon ok?"

"See you soon G-man!" she replied, and they both hung up, with Booth driving home to change out of his suit, and Angela going back into the living room in search of her friend.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"So, was Booth ok with coming to the party?" Temperance asked anxiously when Angela reappeared.

Angela made her way over to the couch where she was sitting. "Of course honey. He thinks it should be really fun. I'm really sorry I interrupted your plans though Bren, if I'd known I _never_ would have made you come."

Temperance guessed that Booth had told Angela what she hadn't. "Hey don't worry about it Angela. If Booth doesn't mind, then it doesn't make a difference to me. We can always go to dinner another time." She gave Angela a reassuring smile, and Angela grinned back.

"You know that's _exactly_ what he said! You guys are just too cute."

"Cute, Angela?" she asked disparagingly.

"Yep! Cute."

* * *

Not long after, Cam arrived, and Angela remembered that she still wanted to change before everyone else got there. She offered Temperance a change of clothes too, but didn't argue when she declined, saying there was nothing wrong with what she was wearing.

"So," Cam said when Angela had left the room. "I guess everything went well. May I ask what happened?"

Temperance had to quickly remind herself that her relationship with Cam was no longer just professional. It felt a bit strange. "Well I guess you have a right to know, seeing as you orchestrated the whole thing. Just how much did you have to do with it on Booth's end, by the way?"

Cam laughed. "Much less than you probably think. All I really did was give him a nudge in the right direction, the rest was all him."

"Huh." Temperance tried to think of the scene objectively, and laughed. "I guess you didn't have anything to do with exactly _how_ he was going to tell me, did you?" Cam raised a questioning eyebrow. "I think he just gave up trying to be eloquent about it. He just kind of…blurted it out. Luckily, because of you, I was a bit more prepared. I was still somewhat shocked though, it's not every day a guy bursts into your office and says he loves you. I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed, I still am really. I don't really know how we're supposed act, I…"

"Woah, wait!" Cam backtracked. "He actually said that he loves you?!"

"Well yes, that's what I'm so overwhelmed by…"

"I thought he would just ask you out or something…Jesus!" She shook her head in amazement.

Temperance was unsure what to say, she really was way out of her depth here.

Still shaking her head, Cam continued. "I guess it shouldn't be such a surprise…it's just one extreme to another with the two of you."

Temperance smiled sheepishly. So, she wasn't the only one who thought that!

Their conversation was interrupted by the chime of the doorbell and then a voice from somewhere in the depths of the house. "Bren honey, could you get that? I'll be out in just a second!"

Temperance excused herself to Cam by gesturing vaguely towards the front door, and then she made her way down the corridor to the entrance hall. Figuring that Hodgins would not ring his own doorbell, she guessed it was Booth.

She opened the door and saw Booth half turned around, looking off down the street. He turned back around when he heard the door open, and grinned when he saw her standing there.

"Oh good." He sighed in relief. "I wasn't sure if this was the right mansion or not. I wouldn't want some angry butler chasing me off the property for disturbing him." She could hear the cynicism in his voice.

"Booth, be nice. What's wrong with having money?"

He scoffed, moving forward into the hall, and she closed the door. She turned and saw him standing there, looking around at the large foyer. "Geez Bones, and I thought your place was fancy." He flashed her a mischievous grin. "You reckon he's compensating for something?"

She frowned. "What does he need to compensate for Booth? He's intelligent, he has an important job, he's clearly wealthy, and he's very generous, being a significant benefactor to the Jeffersonian."

Booth's smile disappeared and became a look of alarm. "Hang on, you're not supposed to know that! Who told you?"

"What, that he owns the Cantilever group? No one. I figured it out ages ago. It wasn't difficult. But he seems to want to keep it a secret, so I didn't say anything. It doesn't make much difference to me."

Booth just shook his head.

"So…I guess dinner's cancelled then?"

Temperance grimaced. "I'm really sorry Booth. I did try to tell her but, well she was being…Angela."

Booth laughed. "Hey don't worry, I understand completely. Honestly, I defy anyone who is able to divert that woman when she's on a mission." Temperance laughed as well and rolled her eyes, then Booth added "A bit like you really."

Temperance gasped. "Hey! I would never do that! When have I ever done that to anyone?"

Booth looked thoughtfully at her outraged expression. "No, you're right. You just would have 'logicked' them to death. Or at least until they gave in."

"Booth! _'Logicked'_ is not even a word!"

Booth just laughed at her. She threw her hands up in the air on frustration and turned around, planning to storm off down the hall. Before she had taken half a step however, Booth grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to face him.

"Hey, hang on just a minute!"

"What?" she asked, now even more exasperated, and completely forgetting the existence of their new relationship.

"You didn't let me do this!" he exclaimed and immediately leaned down and kissed her. _Now _she remembered that new relationship.

When he pulled back again she thought of retaliating, but decided against it when she remembered that people were waiting for them just down the hall, and that Zach and Hodgins could walk through the door just behind them at any moment.

"Um, we should probably go in. Angela and Cam are waiting for us in the lounge. If we take any longer Angela will come looking for us, and personally I've heard enough squealing for one day."

Booth laughed at the grimace on her face. "Hmm good point." He said, letting go of the hand he had been holding, but not removing his arm from around her waist. Tutting, she picked up his hand and physically removed it, taking a step away from him.

"I'd really prefer it if people didn't spend the whole night watching us, so I think we should hold off on doing things like _that_." She looked at his suddenly insecure expression and added quickly, "Just for tonight. I just need to get my head around it first, before we go showing it off to everyone else." His expression eased.

"Sure Bones. I'm not pressuring you into anything. It's all up to you."

Of course she knew he wouldn't pressure her. She smiled, this time taking a step back towards him, and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you. Shall we go in?"

"Yep, let's go!" He replied and started following her down the corridor. "So are Hodgins and Zach not here yet?"

"No, they're out getting food and drink. They should be here soon though I think."

Booth smirked to himself. "Hodgins is probably having trouble fitting it all in that pathetic excuse for a car that he drives." He said this just as they entered the lounge.

Angela, who had just entered through another door, looked over at them. "I wouldn't insult his cars if I were you Booth. Just wait until you see what he has in his garage."

Booth grimaced. "Well if they're anything like this house, then I don't know if my poor middle class soul could take it. Honestly Angela, have you even _seen_ all the rooms on this place?"

Angela grinned. "You kidding me? First thing I did when I first came here was explore every inch of the place. You would be amazed by some of the things he has in all of those rooms."

The pair had now made their way over to the couch Temperance had previously occupied, and as they sat down Booth muttered "Yeah, a bunch of nerdy bug and slime things I bet."

Temperance whacked him on the shoulder.

"Hey!" he yelled, rubbing the spot where she had hit him.

"Don't be so condescending!"

He glared at her. "You know I've heard of girl-bashers, but no one ever warned me of guy-bashers like you!"

Temperance scoffed. "Oh don't be such a child."

Booth, never one to lose a fight to a _girl_, was about to reply, but he was interrupted by a commotion in the doorway.

"Hey everyone! We're here!" Hodgins exclaimed as he burst into the room, arms loaded with bags, and Zach trailing behind him. "And we come bearing beer and pizza!"


End file.
